Sprints are great for fat loss and i know they can build leg strength and muscle. Could they be used effectively with training even with a calorie surplus to maintain or gain weight? I know sprinters are generally big guys.

How long should you wait between squatting and sprinting? or lifting legs in general

I know if I do actually do sprints, it can't be within a few days of my leg workout. Whether you think you can or not, you just won't be able to have a maximum output if the workouts are too close together.

Although, like Iron Dwarf said, they're not ideal mass-builders. Sure, sprints have big quads, but they're also freaks of nature. I don't see why you wouldn't just stick to the big basic lifts for legs.

I know for sure the day after a sprint session I get some massive soreness in my rectus femoris and I never got that level of soreness with squat. But my squat is weak and even if I'm able to squat ATG with pretty good form, because of poor levers (long ass femur...)I still encounter difficulty fully stimulating my quads during squats. So I guess for a poor squatter like me sprints in complement of squats can help triggering hypertrophy, but for a good squatter it's probably a waste of time.

EDIT: I know soreness is not necessarily correlated with hypertrophy...but it still means you did something good.

I don't know that I've ever noticed large mass gains from running sprints, but they certainly made my legs look better. That and my squat poundages exploded.

Its true that sprints can beat you up and leave you feeling drained. I tried doing tempo runs in place of 95-100% sprints every other workout, which helped to keep my legs fresh and groove my sprint technique. Charlie Francis' website had lots of good ideas as far as track work is concerned.

At that point in time I was doing a squat based workout every Saturday and 2 track sessions during the week. I don't recall ever feeling too beat up(my max squat was about 385, I don't know that someone with a huge squat would respond as well as I did.

Sprinting doesn't build mass unless you have piss development to begin with, and even then the development produced by sprinting will be minimal. If you have been squatting and deadlifting for any appreciable length of time, you have nothing to gain in terms of mass by any kind of running.

Look, people have some kind of emotionl attraction to running. I know, I used to suffer from it. But the truth is that sprinting has NO advantage over weight training for building mass or strength in any way. If you want to get into fat loss then that is really a different argument altogether, but as far as development goes, there is no legitimate reason to do sprints, ploys, or anything else under the sun other than lift heavy and hard. If the gurus tell you otherwise then they are simply wrong.

I dont agree or disagree with anyone, but i have trained with full backs in Rugby that have never squatted with any great conviction yet as a matter of course for the sport, E.G. 40-100m sprints, they have good muscularity and can all squat more than 1.5x bodyweight regardless of squat training 'per-say'.

Oh and for the record by reading any true information from any eminent sprint/power coach, they will all confirm that the most influencial muscle(s)used within sprinting are the Hamstrings. So for any serious increase in sprint/power increases, the focus of any 'Leg Day' [Although personally I disagree with such a day and prefer to ultilize, A day for Quadriceps and Calve's Dominant and a second day for Hamstrings and Gluteals] (just a personal standpoint however), Should be The Hamstrings, utilizing the big exercise's, for example, the Romanian Deadlift and Good Mornings. Throw in some Plyometric work and whatever the goal, be it Power, Strength, Hypertrophy, or Speed, Such a training plan is effective on all levels. M.J.Cartwright. Pontypridd South Wales.